No doubt about it, bad dates have been happening to good humans ever since the first prehistoric man showed up at his lady love’s cave without bringing a little saber-toothed something. Most of these unfortunate outings fall into one of two categories: The kind with good people but bad luck, and the kind where the person you’re on the date with is either clueless, crass, crazy, cheap, or cheating—or if you really hit the jackpot, all four.
Luckily, even the worst bad date is like a bad haircut: horrible while you’re going through it, but not permanent—and it may even make for a hilarious story down the road, once you’ve stopped screaming. In honor of Valentine’s Day, we asked our Facebook followers to share their best stories about their worst date, as part of a contest to win a dinner at The Melting Pot, one of the great date night destinations in Arlington (and home to one of my favorite appetizers, the Green Goddess Cheese Fondue). In honor of bad dates, good dates, and lovers everywhere, let’s take a look at our winning entry and a couple of honorable mentions—and then check out the end of the article for a preview of what The Melting Pot has in store for you this Valentine’s Day:
That’s not quite what I wanted to hear when I said “tell me about yourself…”
Robin, our Bad Date Contest winner, was on a date with a man she met through an internet dating site when the conversation suddenly took a turn for the, uh, unexpected: “Everything was going great, but I started having weird feelings,” Robin recalls. “We started talking about the past and he blurted out that he just got out of prison for murder. Needless to say, the date ended very quickly.” I guess he gets points for honesty, but overall—yikes!
Blind dates and invisible friends…
Chris earned himself an honorable mention with his tale of a set-up date that seemed doomed from the start—and he soon found out why. After shooting down both a movie and his choice of restaurant, his companion announced that she in fact had another date and wanted to go home, which suited Chris just fine. He obligingly begins to drive her home, and that’s when things went from uncomfortable to strange. “She starts some side conversation with someone else in my car—except no one else is there,” Chris remembers. “I had no idea how to react.” Fortunately, Chris didn’t get stuck with his date’s invisible companion—when he arrived at her apartment, his date graciously opened his back door to let her “friend” out…
At least he was good at multi-tasking…
Stephanie, our other honorable mention winner, was just chilling with her date when she noticed (as she was sitting behind him at the time) that he was getting a text message from someone named Crystal. Suspicious, she asked him who he was talking to. “Oh, just my friend Adam,” he replied. Well, not so much—it turns out that Crystal was in fact her date’s girlfriend. Stephanie’s response? “It was ‘please take me home’,” she recalls. “Better yet, I’ll find my own way home.”
Valentine’s Day at The Melting Pot
Looking for the perfect place to spend Valentine’s Day? It’s hard to pull off anything less than great date at The Melting Pot, one of my favorite spots in Arlington. This year, you can flex-schedule your Valentine’s Day celebration Feb. 13-17, when the restaurant is offering an exclusive four-course menu as part of the Ultimate Romance Celebration in Lovers’ Lane. Find out more.
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